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Schwarzenegger admits to admiring Hitler’s speaking skills in new memoir

Arnold Schwarzenegger has long combated rumors alleging that he praised Adolf Hitler. Inhis new autobiography, "Total Recall," the former California governor admits to praising the Nazi leaders speaking style but says he always opposed Hitler's policies.

"I philosophized that only a few men are born to lead, while the rest of humanity is born to follow, and went from that into discussing history's great conquerors and dictators," Schwarzenegger writes in his book. "I admired Hitler's speaking ability, though not what he did with it."

Speculation and criticism over Schwarzenegger's 1977 seminal bodybuilding film, "Pumping Iron." The Hitler exchange was ultimately edited out of the film by director George Butler. While acknowledging the exchange, Schwarzenegger says it was essentially a ruse often employed by the actor, 65, to draw attention to himself.

"Coming up with outrageous things to say was easy because I was always thinking them to keep myself entertained," he writes in Total Recall.

Nonetheless, the Schwarzenegger camp takes issue with the way the quote has been framed by theNew York Daily News, in a story titled "Arnold Schwarzenegger admits he once expressed admiration for Adolf Hitler after publicly denying it for years."

"This is a totally misleading and irresponsible headline," Schwarzenegger spokeswoman Ashley Robinson said in a statement provided to Yahoo News. "The governor wrote about something he said over 30 years ago that was reported countless times during his election for governor, that he had strong oratory skills that were abused for power. The headline is a shameless, reprehensible attempt by a tabloid to get attention and web traffic."

During Schwarzenegger's first run for governor of California in 2003, Butler quoted the actor in a book proposal, citing a transcript from "Pumping Iron," during which he asked Schwarzenegger to list his heroes.

"I admired Hitler, for instance, because he came from being a little man with almost no formal education, up to power," Schwarzenegger reportedly said at the time.

"Yes, in Germany they used power and authority but it was used in the wrong way," Schwarzenegger said, according to Butler. "But it was misused on the power. First, it started having, I mean, getting Germany out of the great recession and having everybody jobs and so on and then it was just misused. And they said, let's take this country, and so on. That's bad."

Schwarzenegger has been actively involved with pro-Jewish and pro-Israel groups over the years, including the Simon Wiesenthal Center.

When Hitler’s contemporaries in Britain and the US saw newsreels of his
speeches, they saw a gesticulating, wild-eyed man shouting and
apparently
raging uncontrollably. Today, as then, such film clips create the image
of a madman. However, like any brief sound byte, these snippets give a
false
impression.

Hitler Was Not a Lunatic

Hitler was certainly a megalomaniac, power-hungry, and so obsessed with
racial purity that he had no qualms in exterminating millions of
innocents.
These gross crimes against humanity were, however, clearly and coldly
reasoned and cannot be excused as the actions of a raving lunatic.

Hitler’s speeches, far from revealing his insanity, are examples of his
careful, clear-sighted planning, and intelligent (if Machiavellian)
strategies in communication and audience manipulation.

Hitler the Orator

Hitler was a natural orator. His first public utterance, a fiery
rebuttal from the back row of a point made in a Worker’s Party meeting,
so
impressed the party leader, Anton Drexler, that he sought Hitler out to
recruit him. According to Marshall Cavendish in History of World War I,
Drexler told a colleague, “Goodness, he's got a big mouth. We could use
him," and very shortly appointed Hitler manager of propaganda. As
spokesman for the party, Hitler soon challenged for leadership and
changed its name to the Nationalist Socialist (Nazi) Party.

Hitler Practiced his Oratorical Skills

There is evidence that Hitler honed his skills as orator. According to
Chris Hick of Munich Walk Tours, there are extant photos taken by
Hitler’s
best friend and official photographer Heinrich Hoffman of Hitler
practicing gestures to one of his tape-recorded speech. Hitler had
ordered him to
destroy them but Hoffman disobeyed. Like many good public speakers,
Hitler prepared and practiced his speeches, often in front of a mirror.

Audience Manipulation

The few seconds of seemingly hysterical ranting that are preserved in
old newsreels do not convey the full extent of audience manipulation in a
Hitler
speech. Many of Hitler’s speeches were made in beer halls such as the
Hofbrauhaus where he first outlined the party policy to a crowd of 2000.
Beer
Hall speeches were a long-established tradition in German politics.

Beer would flow freely and the mood of the audience might change
considerably over the course of the evening. Hitler would use these
conditions
cleverly. He would often address a crowd for two hours, commencing in a
calm, friendly manner, winning the crowd’s approval with his precise,
logical arguments that took his opponents statements and cut them into
shreds.

As the audience warmed to him and steadily got drunker, Hitler’s voice
became mesmeric. Chris Hicks explains that this was no accident. Hitler
was
extremely interested in mesmerism (hypnosis) as was Hess, and employed a
voice-trainer who had studied mesmerism.

By the time Hitler started to rant and rave, the crowd was ready for it.
His listeners had been led through the movements of an oral symphony
and this
was the final rich crescendo that would inspire them to action.

The Speeches of Hitler as Fuhrer

Once in power, Hitler has the resources of the state at his disposal. He
built impressive public domains, employed grand ritual, mythic
symbolism, and
displays of unity and power to boost the nation’s self-esteem and
confidence and his own position as undisputed leader. His spectacular
public
appearances were orchestrated and his entrances carefully timed.

Hitler was a master of self-presentation and audience manipulation . Far
from being the spittle-flinging loony preserved on film, Hitler was a
clinical strategist who used a range of devices, including his carefully
designed speeches, to woo his audiences and intimidate his enemies.

Hitler came to power when Germany was beleagured and downtrodden from the Depression. Hitler gave Germans a vision and hope for the future:

"In the early 1930s, the mood in Germany was grim. The worldwide economic depression had hit the country especially hard, and millions of people were out of work. Still fresh in the minds of many was Germany's humiliating defeat fifteen years earlier during World War I, and Germans lacked confidence in their weak government, known as the Weimar Republic. These conditions provided the chance for the rise of a new leader, Adolf Hitler, and his party, the National Socialist German Workers' Party, or Nazi party for short.

Hitler was a powerful and spellbinding speaker who attracted a wide following of Germans desperate for change. He promised the disenchanted a better life and a new and glorious Germany. The Nazis appealed especially to the unemployed, young people, and members of the lower middle class (small store owners, office employees, craftsmen, and farmers)."

I have no problem with what he said, you can like the speaker and not like the message. A really good speaker will almost force people to listen to the message, even if they hate what is being said, simply by showing confidence. They believe in what they say so it comes across powerful. Hitler and a few others had and have that ability, good or bad. JMO

I think that one can admire a person's ability to motivate and manipulate people without admiring what the person stands for. If you think about it, it would take a very powerful speaker to get people to go along with Hitler's policies.

Hitler came to power when Germany was beleagured and downtrodden from the Depression. Hitler gave Germans a vision and hope for the future:

"In the early 1930s, the mood in Germany was grim. The worldwide economic depression had hit the country especially hard, and millions of people were out of work. Still fresh in the minds of many was Germany's humiliating defeat fifteen years earlier during World War I, and Germans lacked confidence in their weak government, known as the Weimar Republic. These conditions provided the chance for the rise of a new leader, Adolf Hitler, and his party, the National Socialist German Workers' Party, or Nazi party for short.

Hitler was a powerful and spellbinding speaker who attracted a wide following of Germans desperate for change. He promised the disenchanted a better life and a new and glorious Germany. The Nazis appealed especially to the unemployed, young people, and members of the lower middle class (small store owners, office employees, craftsmen, and farmers)."

I think that one can admire a person's ability to motivate and manipulate people without admiring what the person stands for. If you think about it, it would take a very powerful speaker to get people to go along with Hitler's policies.

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